Bethel’s Jacob Sharpe throws down the ball as he is tackled short of the goal line at the end of Friday night’s 38-30 loss to Armijo.
Chris Riley — Times-Herald

FAIRFIELD >> For the Bethel High School football team to win, the Jaguars have to play textbook defense — stop the run, put pressure on the quarterback and bat down a few passes in the defensive secondary.

Those concepts and a few others were lost in the first half on Friday in Bethel’s 38-30 loss to Armijo at Brownlee Field.

The Jaguars allowed 24 first-half points and could not stop Armijo quarterback Tariq Eid, who ran for 130 yards in the first half alone.

“The first half killed us,” Bethel head coach Jeff Turner said. “It just really, really hurt us. We just weren’t ready to play. They had an onside kick. We weren’t ready for that. We went over and over this stuff.”

The Indians won the thriller when Eid found Samuel King on an eight-yard, game-winning touchdown slant with 15.5 seconds on the clock.

It was a big win for the Indians (1-1), who lost to Vallejo 26-0 two weeks ago. On Friday, they had 100-yard rushing performances from Eid (23 carries, 168 yards), David Chavez (nine carries, 123 yards) and David Reyes (12 carries, 107 yards). Eid’s night would have looked even more impressive if he didn’t fall on a fumble for negative-17 on one play.

“Going into this season, we knew our offensive line was going to be pretty darn dominant,” Armijo head coach Anthony Gonzalez said. “Those boys worked their tail off today. If you take away some penalties and we clean up some things, it was pretty impressive. Our offensive coordinator did an impeccable job calling the game tonight.”

Bethel’s senior running back Oliver Saunders had a monster night for the Jaguars with 236 yards on 12 carries. Saunders scored on runs of 83, 86 and 15. His 15-yard touchdown run came with 6:25 left in the fourth quarter and tied the game 30-30. Quarterback Mekai Segura tried to run in the two-point conversion but was stopped.

“We play how we practice so we just needed to come out of the gates faster,” Saunders said. “We are a very aggressive team so we need to come out next game and play harder. We’re a good team.”

The Jaguars were sloppy with the ball for much of the contest. They fumbled the ball nine times and lost two of those, including the opening kickoff when Armijo tried an onside kick.

The Indians scored on that ensuing drive as Chavez scored from a yard out and the Indians added the two-point conversion to make it 8-0.

Bethel tied the game 8-8 on the very next possession as Segura made an impressive 13-yard touchdown run and dove across the pylon for the score on third down. Saunders added the two-point conversion.

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The Indians scored just before the first quarter ended on a Eid 4-yard touchdown run and the quarterback added the two-point conversion to make it 16-8.

Bethel lost a fumble on its next possession and Armijo turned that into points in the second quarter as Eid ran a counter and scored from 26 yards out. Eid added the conversion run as well to make it 24-8.

Things seemed to finally turn in Bethel’s favor later in the quarter when Sean White intercepted Eid on fourth down.

On the very next play Saunders raced 83 yards down the right side of the field and the Jaguars added the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 24-16. The Jaguars even took some shots at the end zone in the waning seconds but could not tie the game heading into the intermission.

Eid had 130 yards on the ground by halftime and Turner acknowledged his team did not do a good job stopping the quarterback.

“We knew if we did not stop the counter, they were going to beat us,” Turner said.

Whatever momentum the Jaguars had swung back to the Indians on the first play from scrimmage in the second half as Chavez raced 70 yards to the end zone to make it 30-16.

From there, Bethel’s defense improved as the Jaguars kept the Indians out of the end zone until the final seconds. They even forced a few punts to give their offense a chance to come back.

Saunders’ 86-yard touchdown jaunt came with 3:35 left in the third quarter and R.J. Villanueva added the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 30-24. When Saunders tied the game 30-all, it looked like Bethel might pull this one out.

“I think we had the momentum,” Saunders said. “We knew what we needed to do — get the ball into the end zone.”

Turner said he hopes his team cleans up the fumbling issues before league play begins.

“Ball security is always a key for us to do what we do,” he said. “Hopefully, we get that out of our system now and understand how important ball security can be.”

Segura added 71 yards on 11 carries and Villanueva had nine carries for 68 yards. Segura was 2 of 7 passing for 59 yards. Both of those passes went to Jacob Sharpe.

Bethel lost the junior varsity game 20-0.

For video of the game and other local sports, see https://www.tout.com/u/modonnellVTH